Escape Room Immersion

When talking to escape room owners or enthusiasts, the term immersion comes up quite a bit, so what is immersion?

Immersion, in my opinion, means that the room decor and puzzles fit the theme of the game. Basically that it makes sense. In one room I played, the theme was an old pirate ship and there was a computer monitor in the room. It was an old model monitor, but it did not make sense with the room because although the computer monitor was old, computers were not even around during the time the room was set in. Therefore, in my opinion, the room was not immersive. In another room you were trying to defuse a bomb on a ship, one of the puzzles had to do with animals you would normally not find on a ship. Again, this room was not immersive to me.

If you noticed, I said in my opinion, here is where immersion gets tricky, because I have heard talk that if rooms have locks they are not immersive or that the puzzles don’t have to fit the room as long as the decor fits, it is immersive.

So, what does immersion mean? To me immersion is subjective, it means something different to different people. When a person says that a room is not immersive if it has locks, it makes me wonder about the room, I mean what is the purpose of doing the room if it is all electronic? If it is I don’t want to play that room. If you read my blog about tech you will understand that comment. Now if the puzzles don’t fit in with the theme, that doesn’t make sense to me either, why would you not want your puzzles to make sense with the theme.

It is interesting what escape room enthusiasts and some owners think a good immersive room is. I read a question in a Facebook group for escape room enthusiasts asking if people would rather have good puzzles or an immersive room. I was really surprised at some of the comments, people were saying that they believe the theme immersion was more important than the puzzles. So if i’m going to an escape room, I want the puzzles to be good and make sense with the room. I guess what I’m saying is that if the puzzle doesn’t make sense with the room, it may not be a good puzzle. I don’t think that it is too hard to have both, I mean if the room is immersive, it should have both good puzzles and good atmosphere, right! What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.